'He’s Holding The Venues': Pearl Jam Tease Imminent Return To Australia

Pearl Jam just wrapped their first Australian tour in ten years, but according to frontman Eddie Vedder, fans won’t have to wait nearly as long for their next return.

At the band’s last show on the tour (Saturday, 23 November) at Sydney’s Engie Stadium, Vedder addressed the enthusiastic audience in a video captured by a fan below and said: “We haven’t been here for ten years, so let me ask you this question, and I’m being serious. If we were to come back next year or two years tops, will you come back?”

Receiving a deafening roar of approval, Vedder teased: “I talked to the guy today; he’s holding the venues.”

We feel like that’s enough to get excited about Pearl Jam’s impending return—now to wait for another tour to be announced. You can watch the video below.

Vedder’s tease of Pearl Jam’s imminent return to Australia wasn’t the only special thing about the band’s final show of the tour in Sydney.

According to setlist.fm and reports from NME, Pearl Jam performed their cover of Temple Of The Dog’s Hunger Strike for the first time in a decade. In addition to bringing Hunger Strike back into the set, Vedder performed a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s No Surrender solo for the first time since 2006. Watch the band perform Hunger Strike below.

Saturday night’s show included an impressive eleven-song encore. The night featured a career-spanning set, with the band running through classics like Black, Rearviewmirror, Yellow Ledbetter, and more, along with songs from their new album, Dark Matter.

In a live review of Pearl Jam’s show at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, The Music’s Andy Hazel praised the band’s chemistry and explosive musical abilities.

Hazel remarked: “Accompanying their arrival on stage is an oceanic surge of distortion and industrial noise. Within seconds, Matt Cameron's virtuoso drumming is joined by Jeff Ament's crunching bass, and we're suddenly collectively within their 1991 song, Why Go.

“Eddie Vedder appears on the giant screens on either side of the stage in a trucker cap, waves of shoulder-length dark hair sprouting from its back. On either side of him, guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard engage in seamless interplay, united through to the song's explosive conclusion.”